Piper Aircraft trainer sales increase to highest level since 2003

Posted By : MRO Business Today

Aug 24, 2017: Piper Aircraft’s sales of PA-28 trainers have grown to their highest level in 14 years. The Florida-based manufacturer of general aviation aircraft has been progressively regaining market position since 2012. This year Piper is on track to deliver 87 PA-28s – a combination of single engine Archers and single engine, complex trainer, Arrows. This increase represents a 15 percent increase in market share over the past 5 years. Besides the success with Piper’s PA-28 products, sales for the twin-engine Seminole continue to be strong. With the existing demand and pace of sales, Piper is on track to continue to increase trainer delivery volume for 2018.

“Piper’s leadership in global trainer sales is evidenced by our customer base which include the most prestigious flight training institutions in the world. Our complete line up of training aircraft along with their advanced avionics offers flight schools the ease of doing business with a single vendor as well as a the economies of scale that come with standardized fleet,” said Piper VP, Sales, Marketing and Customer Support, Ron Gunnarson.

Piper Aircraft, Inc. will complete delivery of trainer order received from the University of North Dakota John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences for a total of 20 aircraft including 16 Archer TXs and 4 Seminoles which completed delivery earlier this month. The 2017 order is part of an eight year fleet replacement agreement that was signed in April 2016 for a total of 80 Archer TXs and 20 Piper Seminoles. Since the signing of the agreement, UND has taken delivery of 32 Piper trainers – 24 Archers and 8 Seminoles.

“Piper Aircraft is proud to continue to partner with the University of North Dakota in producing world-class professional pilots.” said Simon Caldecott, President and CEO of Piper Aircraft. “The progressive pilot training curriculum offered by UND combined with the advanced Piper training aircraft are ideally crafted to meet the airline industry’s growing demand for well-trained pilots with exceptional aviation skills.”

“The Piper trainers that we are adding to our fleet are equipped with state-of-the-art Garmin G1000 NXi avionics, which offer faster processing power, wireless cockpit connectivity, and a variety of other features that help improve situational awareness and make learning in the cockpit more efficient.” said Paul Lindseth, Dean of the Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota.

Piper received an order for 10 additional Archer TXs from ATP Flight School. The order comes as part of an original agreement made in April of 2013 for up to 100 aircraft to the flight school. ATP agreed to purchase a fleet of 15 Piper Archer TX single-engine, piston-powered advanced training aircraft for delivery in late 2013. However, as ATP’s training program grew, the school expanded its agreement to include an option for 85 additional Archers, bringing the total to 100 single engine trainers.

“For the past five years we have been proud to support the team at ATP with training aircraft. ATP’s confidence in Piper and our trainer products is a testament to the robust and reliable training equipment that we manufacture but also an indication of the growing pilot training activity,” said Piper President and CEO Simon Caldecott. “Our training aircraft sales continue to grow given the availability of a complete trainer product line up as well as competitive operating costs.”

“ATP continues to expand as one of the largest private training organizations in the United States and has been transitioning our fleet to Piper products given their proven reliability, technological flexibility in cockpit avionics and instrumentation, as well as the unsurpassed operational economy,” said ATP Vice President Justin Dennis. “We look forward to continuing to integrate these new Piper Archer TXs into our curriculum.”

As their need for more single-engine Piper training aircraft increases, ATP has been exercising its option to take further Archers. The school continues to transition to a predominately Piper training aircraft fleet and will take delivery of its 82nd Archer next month – its 150th Piper trainer. This aircraft (serial number 900) is particularly significant as it marks the 300th airplane to join the ATP fleet and is Piper Aircraft’s 900th Archer III to be manufactured.

While all of the new ATP airplanes under the agreement with Piper have been equipped with Garmin G500 glass cockpit avionics suites, the most recent order includes an option for G1000 NXi equipped aircraft with GFC 700 autopilot.